❝Don't look away. Look straight at everything. Look it all in the eye, good and bad.❞

HENRY MILLER

✩

3.8 : negotiations

OR

season 7, episode 23 : hit

IT IS A BRISK NOVEMBER MORNING, THE SUN IS SHINING, IT IS A WEEKEND AND THEREFORE A GLORIOUS DAY OFF, AND FIN IS EXTREMELY OUT OF HER DEPTH. She's not sure when or how she got roped into going to a sci-fi convention with Spencer and Penelope, but here she is, wearing a Tardis beanie, a pair of thrifted red high-tops, and looking entirely normal compared to her two companions.

 Spencer explained to her last night, while finishing the bizarre scarf he's been knitting since September in preparation for this convention, that he's cosplaying the 4th Doctor, who is an enigmatic and random character, and when Fin showed her ignorance as to who this was, she opened an unclosable door, and that is how she spent four hours watching Doctor Who with Spencer.

Any other girl would have been annoyed, maybe even angry, but Fin really didn't mind. She loves any excuse to cuddle with Spencer and listen to him ramble about things he cares about. His rambling is one of the most beautiful things about him, in Fin's opinion.

And now, holding hands with her fiancé, who is wearing a mismatched suit jacket and vest, a ridiculous scarf, and a bizarre curly wig, Fin can honestly say he looks damn good. Even though she hasn't heard of half the shows or movies Spencer and Penelope are talking about, she'll happily go anywhere with them, because it makes them happy.

"Okay, okay, uh, the TV movie is in Hall H at nine," Penelope says, reading through the program as they walk. She's dressed, Spencer explained, as the 11th Doctor, wearing her own odd brown wig and a weird red hat, but it suits her. "Can we go to that?"

"Absolutely." Spencer nods excitedly. "Do you think we can make it to the Captains of the Enterprise panel at eleven?"

"Obs," Penelope replies. "Thank you both so much for coming with me."

"Of course!" Spencer smiles. "I've been knitting this scarf for weeks."

"He has," Fin adds, grinning. "Trust me."

"Are you sure you're having a good time?" Spencer glances down at Fin, suddenly concerned. "Because if you're not–"

"Oh, hush." Fin shakes her head. "As long as you're having fun, I am, too. I like seeing you happy. And anyway, I'm learning a lot about nerds in their natural habitat."

Spencer laughs, rolling his eyes, and pulls her in for a quick kiss. "You're so mean."

"Penelope."

Both Fin and Spencer's heads whip forward at the sound of that familiar voice.

It's Penelope's very recent ex-boyfriend Kevin, also dressed as the 11th Doctor, and joined by a pretty redheaded woman in a police officer costume.

"Kevin." Penelope's jaw drops. "Hi. You came!" Her eyes dart to the woman and narrow ever-so-slightly. "And you brought a friend. CSU Technician Sharp, how are you?"

Spencer's hand tightens around Fin's in a way that Fin takes to mean potential emergency.

"Fine. You?" Sharp is also clearly uncomfortable in this conversation.

"I am also fine." Penelope nods fervently. "Okay, well, see ya."

"You're not gonna go in?" Kevin asks, looking rather dumbfounded, as if he's been hit over the head with a rock.

"No. Actually, we just went in, and it's super lame, so we're leaving." Penelope takes Fin's free hand and begins pulling her toward the stairs.

"Oh, okay." Kevin actually looks disappointed. "Oh, great costume!"

"Yeah, you, too," Penelope calls over her shoulder, practically yanking Fin and Spencer along behind her.

As soon as they're out of earshot, Spencer mutters, "Well, that was awkward."

"Oh, my God." Penelope releases Fin's hand with a heavy sigh. "We used to come every year. I can't believe he brought someone else."

"Well, you brought someone else," Spencer offers, rather unhelpfully.

"Yeah, I'm third-wheeling my best friends!" Penelope replies, wrinkling her nose. "Not complaining, of course, I love you both, but that's very different from bringing an attractive coworker on a prospective–Rossi?"

Fin frowns, thinking this is a very odd ending to Penelope's sentence, but then she realizes that, in fact, David Rossi is standing in front of them, jacket slung over his shoulder, apparently waiting for a valet to bring his car around.

Rossi looks Spencer and Penelope up and down, eyebrows raised in judgment. "Why doesn't this surprise me?" He glances at Fin, gesturing to her shoes and hat. "This surprises me a little."

"Hazard of the job." Fin raises hers and Spencer's entwined hands, grinning. "Good morning, Dave."

"Are you here for the convention?" Spencer asks excitedly.

"Who schedules a cigar aficionado event back to back with...this?" Rossi gestures to Spencer and Penelope's outfits, wearing a slightly disgusted expression.

"I know, right?" Spencer grins goofily. "It's the greatest party ever." And then he pauses. "Well, it was gonna be..."

Penelope glares at him, and Fin squeezes her arm reassuringly. "It's still gonna be great, Penna."

"Unless it involves Gentleman Jack and pre-embargo Cuban cigars, I find that statement to be highly dubious," Rossi replies, but he's fighting a smile, Fin can tell. He's a nerd, too, just in a different way.

"Kevin brought another woman," Penelope says, lowering her voice conspicuously. "I'm plotting revenge. Do you want to help?"

Rossi pauses, apparently considering it, and then says, "No. Now, you know I love all of you, but this is Saturday and it is my day off, so I'd prefer to love you from afar." He pauses again, then points at Fin. "Except maybe you. You can get a little closer. But you two–have fun. It's my bedtime."

"It's nine a.m.," Spencer says, frowning as Rossi heads toward a car that has just pulled up to the curb.

"You're judging me?" Rossi raises his eyebrows, fishing his wallet out of his back pocket.

Just then, Penelope grabs Fin's arm tightly, her jaw dropping, and gestures surreptitiously to the hotel across the street. Fin looks and oh my god.

Section Chief Erin Strauss has just appeared, looking disheveled and exhausted, with nothing but a purse in hand, and is waving a valet over herself.

"No..." Fin shakes her head. "That can't be..."

Can it?

But even this small tidbit of gossip isn't enough to sustain Penelope, and, her day effectively ruined, she can't even stomach the thought of being in the same building as Kevin, so Fin and Spencer drop her off at home. From what Fin remembers, Kevin tried to spontaneously propose to her several weeks ago, and when she said no, that she wasn't ready, he ended the relationship without any kind of conversation. Penelope's still struggling, and rightly so.

Spencer swings by their favorite café on the way home to pick up coffee and pastries, and when they get home, Fin immediately changes back into her pajamas and curls up next to Spencer on the sofa with a book and her coffee. This is how a normal Saturday should be at home.

Nearly everything in the house is finished, which makes Fin unbelievably happy. All of Fin's and Spencer's things have been moved in and set up, the rooms have been cleaned and painted, Morgan finished the kitchen cabinets, and Spencer was able to find a contractor to enclose the screened-in porch before winter. They've now started to work on weeding out the garden and flowerbeds together on their days off, and Fin is hoping to plant wildflowers next year to add color to the yard.

But just as Fin is beginning to nod off on Spencer's lap, his phone rings. And it's not a good call. Hotch has bad news: There's been a bank robbery in D.C. that turned into a hostage situation, one cop's been killed, and Will LaMontagne's right in the thick of it. Not only that, but this is only the seventh in a series of bank robberies and subsequent murders over the past few months. It's turned serial, and now the BAU is on the case.

"And Fin, I need you, too," Hotch says, just as Spencer is about to hang up. "Regardless of what your recovery timeline looks like, Chief Strauss was clear: we need all agents available. You'll be on-site, but you will stay out of active combat situations, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir." Neither Fin nor Spencer argue this point. Fin's ready to be back on duty, and Spencer knows better than to try and make her stay behind.

Less than an hour passes before Fin and Spencer are standing on the street in bulletproof vests, sirens howling, waiting anxiously for JJ to arrive.

And then another black SUV pulls up and JJ leaps out, sprinting toward Will and colliding into his arms. "You okay?"

"Yeah, 'm fine," Will mutters, stroking her hair gently. "It's definitely them," he says to Hotch, as JJ releases him, breathing hard. "I only saw the King and the Jack, but I figure the Queen's inside, too."

"What?" Fin frowns. "What do you mean, the King and the Jack?"

"The media's calling them the Face Cards," Hotch explains, turning and leading them down the street. "Seven bank robberies in seven months. They've killed one person at each robbery."

"M.O.?" asks Rossi.

"Single gunshot wound. Each of the victims has bled out."

"Wait, serial killers with a thirty-day cooling-off period and we're only just hearing about this now?" Emily asks, frowning.

"Well, headquarters has always characterized them robbers first and killers second," Hotch replies, with an expression that clearly indicates he disagrees with headquarters.

"No one kills seven people without serious psychopathic tendencies," Spencer says.

"I disagreed with the original assessment." Hotch nods, pursing his lips irritably. "I was overruled."

"So why are we here now?" asks Rossi, evidently disgruntled at his day off being ruined. Fin doesn't blame him.

"Because Crisis Negotiation is overseas," Hotch replies.

"What more do we know about them?" JJ asks.

"They're organized, they're efficient. Each strike lasts about two minutes."

"Well, they gotta be scouting the banks in advance," Morgan says, glancing up at the bank in question. "Why haven't we been able to ID them off of surveillance footage?"

"They hack the security feed and turn off the cameras," Hotch replies, leading them up into an official FBI trailer, where Penelope sits, surrounded by monitors with security camera footage on them. "Both during the initial canvass and during the robbery, until the masks come back on, and then we're allowed to watch."

Fin stares at the monitor, one hand over her mouth. There are least a dozen innocent people, lined up in front of the doors. One woman is holding a baby, rocking back and forth. A man has his arm wrapped around a little girl, maybe eight years old. They are all afraid. She would be, too.

"They're using the hostages as human shields," Rossi mutters, leaning closer to see.

"This is the first time they've been interrupted," JJ says, one hand on Will's shoulder. "What went wrong?"

"It's a big bank." Emily shrugs. "It's possible they weren't able to round everybody up before someone triggered an alarm."
"Why haven't they cut the feed now that they've been cornered?" Morgan frowns. "Letting us see inside gives up a tactical advantage. They gotta know that."

"They don't seem to care," Hotch replies grimly.

"They're overconfident." JJ nods. "Arrogant, even."

"The face card masks add to their narcissism." Spencer shifts next to Fin, pointing at the monitor. "Their personas are the royalty of poker."

"That could be a possible weakness," Fin adds, nodding. "Exploit their arrogance and maybe they make a mistake."

"JJ, Reid, and Prentiss, look at past robberies," Hotch says. "That's gonna be our victimology. Pull another analyst if you need to."

Spencer's hand brushes Fin's gently, and he squeezes once before following JJ and Emily out the door of the trailer.

"Dave, I want you and Fin to handle negotiations," Hotch continues, "and Morgan, strategize tactical options with MPD."

Morgan nods, and he and Will follow the others out the door. Rossi gives Fin an encouraging smile. "Me and you, kiddo."

Hotch opens his mouth to say something, and then pauses, his eyes drifting to the doorway. "Chief Strauss."

Both Rossi and Fin's eyes snap to the end of the trailer. Strauss is standing there, looking like a bitch. Well, she always looks like a bitch, but especially so today.

"The director ordered me to supervise your operation," she says, walking over to stand next to Rossi, her eyes on the screen.

"Puts you right in the spotlight," Rossi says, almost grumpily.

"Well, you've got gunmen with hostages in the capital." Strauss sighs heavily. "The Hill's concerned."

"We're about to open lines of communication," Hotch says.

"What about a tactical assault?" Strauss asks, and Fin immediately shakes her head, replying before Hotch or Rossi can get a word in.

"That's a bad idea. They've got at least a dozen hostages standing between us and them, and that's intentional. We could end up with casualties and the Bureau would come under direct fire."

Strauss stares at Fin, her mouth open slightly. Fin takes pride in the fact that she can render their section chief speechless.

"The Jack's bleeding out," says Rossi now, gesturing to the screen above Penelope's head. "They'll ask for medical attention. That's our way in."

But Hotch is shaking his head. "The female unsub might have something to say about that. Look at her body language."

"She's cold and detached." Rossi nods. "The King seems genuinely concerned about his partner's welfare, but she couldn't give a damn."

"The men probably know each other," Hotch says. "Garcia?"

"Yes." Penelope snaps to life, fingers flying to her keyboard. "Shuffling my technofabulous deck of databases, sir."

"You ready?" Rossi glances at Fin, eyebrows raised.

She nods, steeling herself for the inevitable: a hostage death, another cop injured, an explosion... "Yes."

Then she, Hotch, and Rossi head outside to the prepared call center, and an analyst dials the bank number. Rossi holds the receiver to his ear, while Hotch and Fin listen on headphones. They agreed that Rossi would play the medical assistance card, and if needed, Fin could play to the King's sympathy for his friend.

It rings twice, and then a man's voice, low and angry, hisses, "Who the hell's this?"

"My name is David Rossi," Rossi replies, his voice cool and even. "I'm with the FBI. To whom am I speaking?"

"All right, I want a doctor sent in, and then I want out of here."

"Well, we certainly can discuss that. Let the hostages go and we'll give you all the medical help you need."

The man laughs humorlessly. "I can't do that. I need the leverage."

"How about a sign of good faith?" Rossi suggests, still calm, his voice level. "Send out the women and children, and I'll see what I can do."

There's a pause, and then a woman's voice, sounding far-away: "Either we get what we want, or everyone in this room dies."

"Do that, and you get nothing," Rossi says, a bite to his words now.

Another pause.

And then a gunshot.

Fin gasps.

Then the man's voice comes back on the phone. "You better send in some more help or more people are gonna die."

Rossi lowers the phone from his ear, hissing curses in Italian, turning away from Fin and Hotch.

Quick footsteps echo on the asphalt behind them, and Strauss appears, windswept and concerned. "We're sending in a medic."

"That's just gonna give them another hostage," Hotch replies warningly.

"If they stop shooting people, it's worth it," Strauss counters.

"If we give in to one demand, we'll have to give in to them all." Rossi frowns, shaking his head.

"The Director disagrees."

"Well, the Director is not down here, negotiating with murderers," Fin replies, doing her level best to keep her voice polite. "So excuse me if I don't give a damn what he or any other government bureaucrat thinks about this situation."

Strauss opens her mouth to respond indignantly, but Hotch cuts in. "At least make it an agent with medical training. That way, he can take advantage of an opportunity if it comes."

Strauss glares at Fin for a moment, then nods. "Fine."

As she walks away, Hotch stares down at Fin. "She's not going to forget that."

"I know."

"This is your first instance out in the field in months, after a traumatizing event," Hotch continues. "Strauss is giving you a chance to prove yourself. Try not to give her a reason to fire you."

But it turns out that firing Fin will be the least of Strauss's worries, because the King–Chris Stratton–kills the agent-turned-medic they send in, an innocent hostage is dead, and the Jack–Oliver Stratton, Chris's little brother–has bled out. Everything is going horribly wrong.

"Tactical's been deployed," Morgan says now, standing underneath a canopy with Strauss, Rossi, Hotch, Will, and Fin. "Snipers are moving into position."

"The director's ordered a full tactical assault," Strauss says, crossing her arms over her chest.

"His last orders cost us an agent." Morgan frowns, his brows furrowed.

"SWAT's getting itchy fingers," Will adds, shaking his head slowly.

"Well, you remind SWAT that bank robberies are federal jurisdiction," Hotch snaps. "No one fires until they're ordered to."

"Right." Will nods, and he and Morgan head out, toward the SWAT team leader.

"All right, when the crossfire starts, what's gonna happen to the hostages caught in the middle?" Hotch asks, his eyes narrowed on Strauss.

"That's the wrong call, Erin, and you know it," Rossi says.

Fin knows this is the wrong time, but she's never heard Rossi call Strauss by her first name before. She wonders if this has anything to do with them being near the same hotel "coincidentally" this morning.

"It's not my call." Strauss shakes her head.

"You're here and you're in charge," Hotch counters.

"So you want me to disobey the director?"

"Yes," Rossi and Fin say in unison, and Hotch gives them a withering look before turning back to Strauss.

"No, I just want you to buy us a little time. Don't be quite so efficient."

Strauss sighs, shaking her head. "Whatever you're gonna do, do it fast."

As she walks away, Hotch steps closer to Fin and Rossi, lowering his voice seriously. "All right, reasoning with them is still our best option."

"That'll be difficult," Rossi replies, shaking his head. "Chris just lost his brother and murdered someone in retaliation. We're dealing with two killers now."

Fin opens her mouth to suggest a new tactic, but Penelope hurries up behind Rossi, her eyes wide. "We have problems, sirs and Fin. Outside nefarious sources have hacked into the surveillance feeds. I'm trying to ID them now. At least a couple of them are media outlets."

"Can we block them?" Hotch asks, his mouth tightening frustratedly.

"No, not without blocking ourselves, too, sir."

Hotch pauses for a moment, clearly thinking, and then nods. "Okay. Keep trying to ID them. We've got to keep moving on this."

Penelope nods and hurries back toward the trailer.

"Let's get Morgan and Will over here and call the others," Hotch says, pulling out his phone. Fin drops into a chair next to Rossi, thinking hard. She wonders if maybe they could still appeal to Chris's grief over his brother, to pit him against the Queen.

Hotch's phone rings twice, and then Emily answers: "Hey, Aaron. You've got me, JJ, and Reid here."

Aaron? Fin stifles a grin. It's definitely not the time, but she's never heard Emily call Hotch by his first name before.

But if there is something going on, Hotch's face doesn't show it. He just places the phone on the table in front of him and says, "All right, you're on speaker with Rossi, Fin, Morgan, and Will. What've you found?"

"Well, I got a phone call from Clyde Easter," Emily replies. "He says that our Queen of Diamonds has been operating internationally for a lot longer than we thought. Nobody's been able to identify her because she wears disguises, and she had the same M.O. in Europe, except she worked alone."

"Why would she start working in the U.S. with partners now?" Fin asks, frowning. That doesn't seem smart if you're hoping to be efficient and eliminate risk. Adding more people to the equation means you're less likely to succeed.

"That's what we're trying to find out."

"What if the smaller banks were training runs for the Stratton brothers?" Rossi suggests, resting his chin on his hand thoughtfully.

Morgan shrugs. "Well, it could be. She took two relatively amateur thugs and turned them into an elite team of efficient bank robbers."

"But why?" Emily asks. "To turn them into patsies?"

"All right, okay, so let's look at it," JJ says. "Up until now, they've been highly organized, striking only on deposit days, when the most amount of cash is on hand."

"But today's different." Spencer's voice brings a smile to Fin's face and her hand instinctively moves to the ring on her finger, twisting it absentmindedly. "It's their first Saturday hit, where families are present, more foot traffic throughout the day."

"It's a riskier attack." Will nods.

"We should consider the media attention, too," Hotch says. "It's the first time they've had an audience."

"That might be why the female unsub is so vain," Emily suggests. "She wants to look good for the cameras."

"And she's the psychopath, the one who gets off on watching innocent people bleed out," Fin adds, nodding. "Any negative reaction just fuels her ego."

"She searches the bank but doesn't actually look for a means of escape." Rossi frowns thoughtfully. "She appears to almost be enjoying the situation."

"We know the brothers are in it for the money." Hotch glances over at the remote monitor, showing the inside of the bank. Chris Stratton is sitting at a table, staring at the phone with his head in his hands. "What's she in it for?"

"That's what we have to figure out." Rossi stands up, adjusting his sleeves, and looks over at Fin. "I want you to call them. Tell them that I'm an asshole and that the Bureau is more forgiving. Make them think you'll bend. Chris is probably a misogynist, so he'll try to roll over you."

"Thanks, Prentiss." Hotch hangs up the phone and pockets it, following Rossi and Fin over to where the phone is.

No matter how many negotiations Fin is a part of, it always makes her nervous. Talking directly to killers and psychopaths is dangerous. Any wrong move of hers could get someone killed. It reminds her of one of her first cases, back in Ohio, with the girlfriend of the Angel Maker.

Inhale, hold for four seconds. You can do this.

Exhale, hold for four seconds. Just keep your head.

So Fin picks up the phone and punches the number in. It rings three times, then Chris picks up. "What?"

"Hi, Chris," Fin says sweetly, softly.

"Who the hell is this? Where's Agent Rossi?"

"I'm Hazel Finley, I'm also with the FBI. Agent Rossi was removed from negotiations. He failed to save lives. So they replaced him with me."

Rossi gives her a thumbs-up, nodding encouragingly. So Fin continues. "I'm gonna guess you want out of there, huh?"

"That's right. I want an armored truck and a plane with a clear flight path to Switzerland."

Then a woman's voice cuts over him. "No, no, no. Chad. We want to go to Chad."

"Yeah," Chris says. "No agents with guns this time. We'll fly ourselves."

"That was a mistake," Fin replies evenly. "It won't happen again. The FBI wants to give you what you want, Chris. We can make a deal. But you have to promise us no one else dies."

The phone clicks. Chris hung up.

Now all they can do is wait. With an okay from Strauss, Hotch calls in the armored truck. Penelope traces the 911 alert to a phone belonging to one of the robbers.

It's all a set-up.

JJ and Emily arrive as back-up. Spencer stays behind with Kevin to continue researching their Queen, in hopes that they can identify her.

Penelope discovers a fourth unsub, one who is always watching on the cameras. The one the Queen dresses up for.

That is the dividing line they can use to pit Chris against her.

So Fin makes a phone call. "Hey, Chris. How are you holding up?"

"We saw the truck," Chris hisses. "Why isn't it in here yet?"

"I told you, we can make a deal, but we've got to get you and your lady friend to promise that no one else dies. It's that simple." Fin pauses, and then asks, "You're in charge of this operation, right?"

"Yeah, I'm the boss. I give the orders."

"Then why is it that your friend makes you do the dirty work? Why is it that she let Oliver die?" Fin leaves this last work hanging, slowly, dripping off her tongue. She wants Chris to marinate it. "She could've gotten a real medic in if she wanted. But she didn't."

"Bullshit. I'm in charge."

"Well, if you're in charge, then she should share everything with you, right?" Fin pauses again, letting him marinate, and then says, very slowly, "Like how she texted 911 to get us here? Like how she's performing for the cameras? For someone who's watching everything?"

There is a long silence, and then Chris says, "Enough. I'm done talking to feds. The only person I'm talking to now is the cop who shot my brother."

And he hangs up.

But it doesn't last long.

He calls again, threatening to shoot one hostage every minute that Will doesn't walk in that building. And he makes good on it the first time.

Fin flinches when the gunshot echoes over the phone speaker.

Now five people are dead.

Hotch orders a SWAT team to move in. They will save the hostages.

But Will defies orders. He walks toward the bank, alone, determined.

Fin and Morgan hold JJ back as she fights to run after him, screaming his name. But he doesn't look back.

True to their promise, Chris and the woman send three hostages out. A woman and two children. Fin scoops the little girl into her arms and holds her while she cries that her father is dead.

And then there are gunshots.

Morgan has to hold JJ back again.

Fin sends the little girl–her name is Olivia–into one of the medical tents to get checked out.

They cut the security feed. Penelope is in tears. JJ is angry. Everyone is in shock.

Will could be dead. He was wearing a vest.

No one knows.

Chris will not answer the phone.

JJ's plea of "Aaron" almost sends Fin into tears. She knows how this feels. Hotch knows how this feels.

She stays in the trailer with Penelope and Strauss, per Hotch's orders, while the others prepare to move in with the SWAT team.

Spencer calls. "How's JJ?" he asks worriedly.

"How would you be?" Fin replies quietly, holding the phone to her tightly, as far away from Strauss as she can be in this trailer.

"I should be there," he says, talking quickly, the way he does when he's afraid. "We've learned everything we can from here."

"No, Spence, you need to help Kevin and Penelope–"

"Seeing what's going on outside doesn't help us inside." Spencer sighs. "Where are you?"

"In the trailer, with Penelope and Strauss. I promise, I'm not going in there. I think Hotch might have a heart attack."

"I might have a heart attack."

"They're sending more hostages out," Penelope whispers, and Fin hangs up the phone with a quick "I love you".

But it's not just more hostages.

It's all the hostages.

So Morgan, JJ, and Emily head inside.

Fin closes her eyes, praying that Will is alive.

Spencer calls Penelope's phone. "Garcia, get them out of there!"

And then the bank explodes.

~

this episode always gives me so much anxiety, no matter how many times i watch it.

also this was loooong, but i felt like it'd be weird to split it up into multiple chapters. so happy saturday :)